Letters
— 15 January 2013
— by Peninsula Citizens for Sustainable Development

Dear Editor,

Could you publish this for us.

Dear Prime Minister Barrow,

Peninsula Citizens for Sustainable Development strongly supports Minister Alamilla’s actions today in burning illegally extracted rosewood to graphically illustrate how illegal extraction and exportation of rosewood is burning our country’s economy. Illegally cut and exported rosewood might just as well be burned for all the benefits it brings to Belize.

Illegal extraction of rosewood has to stop – not only does it hurt our country environmentally, it also hurts it economically and socially. When people see this happening and the government unable or unwilling to stop it, it sends a message of governmental ineffectiveness, and leads people to conjecture about the involvement of government officials in the illegal extraction.

Minister Alamilla is to be commended for her determination to stop this pillaging of our patrimony.